Winfrey Admits Mistakes

System Of Fact-checking By Staff Failed, She Says

AMARILLO, Texas — Oprah Winfrey insisted Thursday her nationally syndicated talk show did not "publish false statements" about the safety of beef produced in the United States.

But near the end of her 2 1/2 days of testimony in this unusual $12 million beef libel trial, Winfrey conceded her program's system of fact-checking involving researchers and producers failed when it came to the April 1996 program on food safety that provoked the lawsuit. The program was broadcast at the height of scares over mad cow disease and related human deaths in Great Britain and other parts of Europe.

"We do thousands of shows, and every time the system has worked. This is the first time it didn't work for us," Winfrey testified.

Plaintiff attorneys, who had frequently grilled Winfrey on the truth of claims made on the program by vegetarian activist Howard Lyman, did not respond to Winfrey's statement.

A group of Panhandle-area cattlemen have sued Winfrey, her production company and Lyman, alleging remarks made on the program caused beef prices to drop. They are suing under a 1995 Texas statute that prohibits disparaging statements against perishable products.

Gary Weber of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association had claimed in earlier testimony that he was "ambushed" by Winfrey when he represented the association on the show. On Thursday, defense attorneys played a tape showing the cattlemen had arranged for Weber to rehearse his performance at a mock talk show staged by a media consulting firm, hosted by a character called "Oprah Sinfree." In that tape, Weber seemed composed and prepared, making many of the same remarks as on the Winfrey program that generated the lawsuit.

"After seeing the tapes, it is obvious to me that (he) cannot in any way say he was ambushed," Winfrey testified when she was asked to compare the rehearsal tape with the show that aired.

In taped testimony presented late Thursday, Weber said Winfrey admitted to him that the program was not fair. "She (Winfrey) said she looked at the tape and (said), `We were not fair to you,' " Weber said.

The plaintiffs are still presenting their case, which is in its third week of trial. Though they contend that the program caused cattle prices to drop, so far no cattle or futures market experts have been called to testify on what can cause prices to change and what impact the media can have on the markets.

Instead, much testimony has concentrated on how and why the mad cow disease show was created, edited and aired in its final form.

Attorneys introduced several reports on mad cow disease from national newspapers and TV news shows to make the point that Winfrey's show was following the mainstream media on the subject.

"We don't have the kind of investigative team that goes out and breaks news stories," she told the court.

The cattlemen allege Winfrey's show favored ratings-grabbing and alarming statements by Lyman over pro-beef statements made by other guests.

In particular, the cattlemen took exception to Lyman's statement on the show that as long as U.S. cattlemen were putting ground-up parts of cattle into feed for the herds--a possible way to spread bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and a practice now banned by the Food and Drug Administration--there was a chance the brain degenerating disease could hit America and make AIDS "look like the common cold." Winfrey responded by declaring she had eaten her last burger.

During her testimony Thursday, Winfrey said she does not believe her influence extends to beef prices. "Why am I really here? I can't wrap my brain around it. I really can't," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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